The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday, June 27, 2017, approved construction of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art — featuring the collection of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas — next to the Coliseum in Exposition Park. (Artist’s rendering courtesy of the Los Angeles City Council)

George Lucas is donating $1.5. billion to build the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Exposition Park. (Artist’s rendering)

George Lucas, right, filmmaker, creator of “Star Wars,” addresses the Los Angeles City Council members as his wife, Mellody Hobson, looks on during a meeting at City Hall in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 27, 2017. Los Angeles City Council approved the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art project in Exposition Park. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Filmmaker George Lucas’ museum paying tribute to the narrative arts cleared a key hurdle, with the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approving the $1.5 billion project in Exposition Park.

It was a long road to the City of Angels for Lucas. San Francisco and Chicago were the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” creator’s first choices. But Mayor Eric Garcetti and others lobbied hard to woo the reluctant Lucas to bring his museum to Los Angeles.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will focus on artwork with storytelling elements. The five-story, 300,000-square-foot building will house his extensive collection of paintings, illustrations and movie memorabilia.

With the council’s 14-0 vote on Tuesday and the expected approval from Garcetti, the project is anticipated to break ground at the end of this year, with construction of the museum itself beginning in early 2018. Completion of the whole project is set for 2021.

Garcetti on Tuesday joined Lucas and the filmmaker’s wife, Mellody Hobson, to hail the project and urge the council to approve it.

“Thank you so much to George Lucas and Mellody Hobson for bringing this vision of creativity … to inspire generations to come to be creators and to seize their dreams,” Garcetti said in the council chambers before the vote.

Lucas had to abandon plans to build the museum in Chicago and San Francisco after facing challenges in those two cities.

“Who knew it would be so hard to give away a museum?” Hobson said.

Hobson said she was heartbroken that they couldn’t get the project built in the two other cities. San Francisco is Lucas’ hometown, and Chicago is Hobson’s.

But Los Angeles was “easy” and where the museum “was always meant to be,” she said.

Lucas and Hobson have connections to Los Angeles, with both having studied at the University of Southern California.

Lucas said “for a very brief time, I actually grew up here, especially where the museum is going to be — at USC.”

“That’s where I learned movies,” Lucas told the City Council. “That’s where I learned my craft. That’s where I basically started my career.”

Lucas said he feels “the whole concept of narrative art had been forgotten” and that the power behind art is that it serves as a “glue” for society.

Art often has the power to build myths, Lucas added, “whether it’s to promote the church … whether it’s to promote Napoleon on his giant horse.”

He said that he is gearing the museum to “adolescents,” the same audience he had in mind for “Star Wars,” saying he wants to inspire young people to “see outside the little road that they’ve got carved out for themselves,” especially in the South Los Angeles community that surrounds the museum site.

At $1.5 billion, the project constitutes the “largest private gift in our state,” the city and potentially in “our nation’s history,” said Councilman Curren Price, in whose district the museum will be built.

Don Bacigalupi, president of the museum, assured council members that among a collection of artwork from different sources, the museum will house archives from Lucas’ own filmmaking career, including early concept and storyboard drawings.

The spaceship-like museum building, designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, will be part of an 11-acre space that also includes a garden area and a public park. The museum will sit along Vermont Avenue, between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Jessie Brewer Jr. Park.

Other amenities at the museum include theaters, educational labs and classrooms, a research library for the public, a cafe and restaurant, and a museum store. Parking will be built underground and include about 2,400 spaces, replacing existing parking at the site.

Elizabeth Chou has reported on Los Angeles City Hall government and politics since 2013, first with City News Service, and now the Los Angeles Daily News since the end of 2016. She grew up in the Los Angeles area, and formerly a San Gabriel Valley girl. She now resides in the "other Valley" and is enjoying exploring her new San Fernando environs. She previously worked at Eastern Group Publications, covering Montebello, Monterey Park, City of Commerce, and Vernon.

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